Chris Soteriou speaks of the night he was nearly murdered by his wife and her lover on Sunday Night

Esther Han

Chris Soteriou did not feel any pain during and straight after the stabbing frenzy on the night of his 44th birthday dinner.

Instead, the intense agony came when his brother, John, revealed that the culprits behind the attempt to murder him were wife Vicky Soteriou and her lover. “He wanted to die,” John said. “He wanted to die.”

“He wanted to rip all his tubes off. He said ‘no’, and we said, ‘yes, Chris’. And there were five of us trying to calm him down."

The devastating news that the mother of his three children had plotted to take his life led him to nearly jump out of a window of the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where he had spent the last 10 days in a coma.

On the night of January 2, 2010, he was stabbed multiple times by his wife's lover Ari Dimitraki, who was lurking in the shadows on a back street in Fitzroy, Melbourne.

In 2011, Vicky Soteriou and Ari Dimitraki were both found guilty of attempting to kill Chris Soteriou and have been languishing in prison ever since.

On the program, Chris re-traced the steps he took with his wife the night he nearly died.

They were “laughing, hugging and cuddling, reminiscing how beautiful the night was," he recalled, putting on a brave face.

CCTV footage from the night also showed Chris carrying left-over drinks and presents from his birthday dinner at the restaurant Alpha Ouzeri.

Chris stopped at the location where Ari leapt out and slashed his throat with the knife - a Christmas gift for Vicky from years earlier.

“There was no feeling, there was just shock. I felt the blood run down my chest and felt this warm fluid running down my body. It happened so fast and quick,” he said.

He reached out for Vicky, calling out: “Where are you? Run, run.”

Ari plunged the knife again and again into his torso.

On camera, Chris unbuttoned his blazer and pulled up his shirt to expose the scars.

“[As a divorced man] I was worth $3 million [to her]. As a dead husband I was worth $7 million,” he said, when asked about why Vicky would want him dead.

He was a doting husband, spoiling her with jewellery, expensive holidays and unconditional love.

Photographs of Vicky wearing a gold, shimmering dress worth $12,000 that he bought for her birthday were broadcast in the report.

In other snapshots, she is covered in thousands of dollars worth of jewellery.

Footage of Vicky Soteriou's interviews at Richmond Police Station were also aired. In the first one, she makes a confession about the affair.

"I've come to confess that Ari and I had organised it," she said, in a denim jacket and her dark curly hair in a messy up-do.

"I don't understand why you would want your husband to be killed. Can you explain why?" A police officer asks.

"Because it was ... I know, it was stupid, absolutely silly, I know."

Later on she said: "Matthew, please, I'm here. All I've got to say is that I organised it with Ari, and I'm sorry for it. I am, I am."

In the ensuing court battle, Vicky repeatedly declared she was "not guilty." She lost and was sentenced to a minimum of nine years.

Chris revealed to Sunday Night how Vicky’s family tried to twist the story and claim he had plotted his own murder.

He said he has moved on, enjoying life with a supportive partner and looking after his young twins.

But he has not spoken with his daughter Marie, now a teenager, who believes that it was his fault her mother was sent to jail.

“I hope she is okay and this is my story. This is the truth, and my door will always be open", he said, his eyes brimming with tears.